We’ve spent many happy holidays in the Seefeld area so it would be hard to pinpoint one as being “The Best Ever.” Rather, happy memories have arisen on all our holidays. We’ve stayed in a number of hotels and apartments in the area but have a clear favourite, aside from where we’re currently staying.

On our maiden visit to Seefeld in 1986, we stayed in a self-catering studio apartment. The following year we stayed in a hotel we’d spotted while out cross-country skiing. The hotel is just outside of Seefeld in Telfs-Buchen, on a hill overlooking the Inn valley. It had opened a couple of years earlier, in 1985, and is owned by the Liebherr family who have one of their plants in the town of Telfs in the valley below.

Rumour has is that the late Dr Hans Liebherr wanted to build a home on the hill but planning permission was refused. Instead he built a large hotel, providing much-needed employment and business for the area. He maybe had the last laugh because as you drive into the hotel’s massive underground carpark, clearly marked on the entrance is “Dr Hans Liebherr, Alpenstrasse 1.” He used to occupy the penthouse suite when he was in residence.

We so enjoyed our 1987 vacation at the hotel that we became frequent guests, staying there in high season, such as Christmas and New Year, mid-February and even low season in the summer. My parents accompanied us on a number of visits, including one in winter where my father manfully gave cross-country skiing a go. However, they tended to prefer visiting in summer when it was less slippy underfoot and the climate more temperate.

The whole area is a sports’ mecca and there’s little we’ve not tried: cross-country and alpine skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing, ice-skating, tobogganing, walking, mountain, fat and road biking, indoor and outdoor tennis, swimming, wild-water rafting and canonying. We’ve also watched a number of sports’ events such as ski jumping, ski racing and, in summer, tennis tournaments.

There’s a number of reasons why we liked staying at the hotel. Although it is large and has many (282) rooms, it never feels full. There is plenty of space to enjoy the hotel, and its many facilities. The bedrooms are spacious, the dining rooms are split into a variety of rooms ensuring that they are intimate and cosy, rather than noisy. Guests can spread themselves in and around the many bars and lounges so there’s never a problem finding a seat.

The hotel is relatively isolated and consequently it provides plenty of day and night time activities for its guests. Facilities have been added over the years including Europe’s largest spa in 2002, a lovely place to luxuriate and be pampered before enjoying the hotel’s indoor or outdoor pools.

Since our move to France we’ve visited Seefeld and the hotel much more infrequently but it remains one of our favourite places to stay. You may wonder why we’re not staying there over Christmas and New Year? It’s simple. The hotel, like most in the area, offers only half-board which frankly we now find all too much, even without taking account of the challenges of my dietary requirements. Plus, we now much prefer the freedom afforded us in a spacious apartment.